


Did it have to be a youth ray?

by Fipsi19



Series: What if? [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, M/M, Mentions of past child abuse, child!loki, not AOU compliant, part of a series, youth ray
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-10 20:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4406429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fipsi19/pseuds/Fipsi19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had to be an youth ray! Of all the different, possibly deadly weapons Phil could think of, Youth ray was on the bottom of the list. Yet, here it was. The villain of the week and inventor of it, a failed physicist with a grudge against Dr Banner, seemingly thought that a youth ray would solve all his problems.<br/>Sequel of some sorts of Everything is as it seems!<br/>Due to some personal issues, I won't update it for a while! I am sorry! HIATUS<br/>Chapter 6 is update to my situation!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Finally I come around and publish my second part of my Loki&Clint series. I haven´t finished writing, so updating will be irregular. TBH I am stuck right now and I hope that publishing it will help me get an idea how to finish it. Oh, and I have no idea if words like reyouth exist, if not I mean somebody is turned into a child.  
> I still have no beta, so all the errors are my own! Mea culpa!
> 
> I tend to change point of view, but I tried to do my best to make it obvious whose point of view it is.

It had to be an youth ray! Of all the different, possibly deadly weapons Phil could think of, Youth ray was on the bottom of the list. Yet, here it was. The villain of the week and inventor of it, a failed physicist with a grudge against Dr Banner, seemingly thought that a youth ray would solve all his problems. Needless to say, the man was no real challenge to the Avengers. It didn´t take long for them to take him down. But it wouldn´t be Phil´s life if something didn´t go wrong. Preferable with the help of Stark. 

This time however, it was the icing on the top of what Phil called life. Loki, why did it always have to be Loki or Clint who got in the way of the various rays villains invented, was the one, the only one, who got hit. This time it wasn´t thanks to some heroic doing in his side but because Stark couldn´t keep his hands of the ray gun. He had to play with it and to nobody´s surprise it went off. Hitting Loki square in the back. 

On days like that, Phil cursed his younger self for pursuing a career in the military instead of following his mother´s footsteps and be a gardener. Surely that had to be more calming and uneventful. Not like the headaches inducing babysitting job he had now. He could see himself growing tulips. It would be calm, no exciting adventures waiting for him.

He walked over to Stark who was talking to a closed closet. Banner, who was still hulked out, was destroying some cars outside and Phil hoped that it weren´t SHIELD vehicles. The other Avengers were fighting the remaining minions the psychotic physicist had.

Loki, now about six or maybe seven, had been terrified at the sight of the Hulk and Iron Man and fled into the closet. Phil couldn´t blame him for it. The idea to hide from Stark was more often than not on his mind. 

Phil listened as Stark tried to bribe the child with various toys. „C´mon Kiddo, I know you don´t want to stay in there. I am sure there are a lot of spiders and other scary stuff in there!“ He winked at Phil who tried his best not to groan at Stark´s try of negotation. Loki didn´t answer. „If you don´t come out right now, young man, I have to get Hulk here to get you out!“ Stark threatened clearly loosing his patience to the utter disbelief of Phil. The closet door didn´t open. Not that Phil was surprised by that.

Stark sighed and walked over to Phil. „Sorry, Agent Agent, I tried my best. He doesn´t want to leave the closet!“ a pause „No pun indented!“ Stark said smirking. 

Phil wasn´t surprised. Threatening with a green monster who was out to get you was surely not the right way to get someone out of the closet. A cold shiver ran down his spine as he watched Stark looking intense at the ray gun. 

„We could always use it on Bruce“ 

„Stop right there, Stark. The raygun stays where it is. We won´t use it on Dr Banner or you. Can you imagine what will happen if a seven year old Dr Banner throws a temper tantrum? And for another we need the both of you to fix the mess you created!“ Stark looked slightly amused. „Aww I knew you cared!“ He cooed. 

Sighing Phil shook his head. „Barton, your status?“

„Still fighting the minions, Sir. They put up quite a fight! Any news on Loki?“

„That´s a negative“ Phil answered through the comm. 

He could imagine how pissed of Clint was right now. 

He noticed that the crashing sounds from outside had stopped. An embarrassed looking Dr Banner walked in, completely naked covering his manhood with his hands. In a swift movement Phil held out his jacket to the doctor who took it gratefully. 

„Did I miss anything?“ 

„ Honey, I youthenised Loki!“ Stark said cheerily.

Banner didn´t look overly shocked at that statement. „Should I try to talk to him?“

Phil shook his head. „Please don´t take it personally but I don´t think it is a good idea for a naked man to talk to a child!“ 

Banner blushed a little at that but nodded in understanding.

„I guess that leaves you, Agent Agent, to show us your badass babysitter moves!“ Stark noted overly excited. 

Phil sighed in defeat. It wasn´t that he didn´t like children but they were kind of messy and uncontrollable. Like the Avengers. They never did what one told them to do and caused a lot of chaos. He approached the closet hoping that Clint would soon appear to take over the whole situation. He was about to say something when he noticed that Banner walked towards the youth ray. „ Don´t even think about it!“ Phil warned him. Banner looked like a deer caught in the headlight but stepped away from it towards a snickering Stark.

Sighing Phil turned back to the closet. He tried to think of what Clint told him about the life in the circus and came to the conclusion that he knew close to nothing about it. He really should talk to his husband of that huge lack of information. The other two looked at him in expectation and amusement. Not knowing what to do, after all bribing and threatening didn´t work, he knocked on the closet door. 

 

Loki tried to gather his thoughts. One minute he was cleaning the camel´s cage and the next he was standing in front of a robot and a huge green monster which destroyed everything in its vicinity. He was sure there was a logical explaination for everything but right now the closet was the closest and safest option. 

The robot, he was pretty sure it was the robot, was talking to him through the door. At first he promised him toys and food and other stuff. Loki knew nothing good could come out of it if he came out of his hiding place. After a while the robot began threatening him with something called a „Hulk“ which sounded bad. He still heard crashing sounds from outside. Although he was only seven, nearly eight, years old he had read about robots and their danger in various books. Nothing good could come out of trusting one. Asimov and his three laws never stood a chance. 

Maybe the Hulk thingy was their executior or something like that. No, he wouldn´t come out. He would stay with the spiders in the darkness. That was safer. The crashing stopped. 

He heard voices but couldn´t understand a word. Maybe they left him alone. He could take a look but it could also be a trap, like the one time at the circus. Not a very good memory. 

A knock disrupted his train of thoughts. Not really thinking he said the first thing that came to his mind. „Yes?“ The moment the word left his mouth Loki cursed his very being. He hoped nobody heard him.

 

Phil looked at the closet a little shocked. He didn´t think knocking would work. Stark and Banner looked at him expectantly. So he did what he knew best. „My name is Phil Coulson and I am an agent of SHIELD. We don´t want to harm you but we need you to leave the closet!“ he told the child. Banner and Stark looked at him as if he had gone mad.

„No!“

Primroses would have been nice too.

„We have eliminated all minions and are on our way to your location, Sir. Any news on Loki?“ 

„Negative“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That´s the first chapter! Hope you enjoyed it. I have no idea how the whole thing will end. I guess lots of feelings and angst! As always I hope it didn´t get too OOC. I am not thinking about a Loki pairing at the moment, neither am I going with the Bruce/Natasha pairing from AoU. And of course there is no wife for Clint. 
> 
> I am really stuck on this story because I have so many Loki feelings and no idea how to resolve them all. It will be interesting. And I probably should keep my original backstory in mind.
> 
> About Thor 2, I am not sure right now if I will kill Frigga. Or if Thor 2 has already happened. I think not, but maybe I´ll change my mind. Thor isn´t really a part of my story right now. Maybe that will change too. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading it, Comments and Kudos are loved and greatly appreciated. And feel free to check out my other stories or my [ tumblr ](http://ungetuem-aus-der-hoelle.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Right now I can´t think of anything else you might need to know!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only a short chapter, I will update it on sunday again, more in the endnotes! Enjoy!  
> This is not Beta´d, all mistakes are my own!

It was the best option to stay in the closet. Safe. They had to leave some time soon. Grown ups didn´t have time to wait around for him, never had never would. Soon enough they would leave and he could finally go and look for himself where he was.

Loki could still hear them bickering with each other. It wouldn´t take much longer and his legs would start to fall asleep. The closet was just too small. Why couldn´t it be a wardrobe like the one he read about. The one where you could go and disappear into another world! A world without the circus and its cruelty. Somewhere nice and wondrous where people would look at him with admiration instead of hate and distaste. It would be easy to just vanish, to just close his eyes and disappear somewhere to somewhere better. 

It was wishful thinking of course. The circus would stay his home until he died. Where else could he possible go?

Nobody ever looked for him. He owed the circus for taking him in, giving him shelter and food. And he heard the talk about foster homes or orphanages from other carnies. The stories didn´t sound like paradise either. At the circus he was accepted, at least to some degree. Nobody would let somebody from the outside hurt him. They looked after him. Everything inside the circus was a total different matter. 

 

It didn´t take long for the rest of the Avengers to arrive. The scene in front of them wasn´t a very pleasent one. Stark and Banner stood around a table with Phil on the other side trying his best to keep the other men from grabbing the ray. 

Clint was furious. He knew that however this disaster would end, Loki would be wanting to leave. Again. 

Childhood was a thing neither of them wanted to relive. Not that they ever talked about it. Neither he nor Loki had any desire to talk about the horrors their childhood had been. Both decided that their life began the moment they met. Only exception was his mother and, sometimes, Barney. For Loki there had been nobody like a mother or Barney. He was on his own from the beginning. 

 

Not minding the disastrious trio Clint walked up to the cupboard but instead of opening it, he hesitated. Threat filled him. He didn´t know that Loki behind the doors. The one who hadn´t heard of Clint before, the one who would know nothing of their life. This Loki here was a kid scared and not knowing what was going on. He had no idea how this child would react to someone claiming to be a friend. Behind him he could hear Phil and Stark arguing about the ray gun. 

Taking a deep breath he opened the door to the closet. He was prepared to see a small child sitting inside. Instead of that scenario he was met with empty space. Clint turned around facing the remaining avengers.

„Where is Loki?“ He said deadly calm.

Everybody turned towards him, looking past him towards the now empty closet. Looks of horror crossed their faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the late update, but I had a really important exam yesterday and wasn´t able to update. I will try to update now more regularly, maybe once every two weeks top, hopefully once every week. I am finishing the story, so don´t worry.
> 
> I know this chapter was really short, but as I said before, I will update another on by sunday, which will be a little longer. 
> 
> Thanks for your patience!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since there has apparently been some confusion this story is gthe sequel to Everything is as it seems. In the first fic there is an explanation to why Loki grew up in the circus. I guess you need to read the first story to understand what is going on. I am sorry if it wasn´t clear from the beginning.

Clint turned towards Phil, Bruce and Stark who looked confused at the empty closet.

"I swear, he was in there!" Stark said, pointing towards the closet. 

"Now, he isn´t, so where is he?" Clint demanded to know.

„Funny thought, but what if the youthenised Loki possesses the same powers as the grown up Loki? It could be possible, right?“ Stark looked at Bruce who seemed to think about it.

„Could be, I mean the powers were always there. He only learned to control them later.“ The others looked at them not quite following their talk. „I mean, without inspecting the ray closer I would say it works on the basis that it changes your body and mind back to when you were younger. A human being would go back to state of a child, mind and body alike. Loki isn´t human as far as we know it. Another thing is that it isn´t as if he was born without these powers. It might be that he is capable of anything he was as a grown up, despite being a child right now.“ Bruce paused for a moment. „He transported himself out of the closet to who knows where. He won´t know what happened but the moment he realizes that he can do stuff like that, we have a problem.“ Bruce said darkly.

„What do you mean?“ Steve asked. 

„Think about it. None of us had the ideal childhood, except for Thor perhaps. As a child the only thing we wanted was to get out. To be a grown up. Loki has the power to be a grown up if he chooses to be. He can influence people to do whatever he wants them to do. If we can´t find fast, there is a possibility that we won´t find him ever!“ 

Stark cleared his throat. „What about his microchip?“ 

Clint shot him a look. „Do you really think any of us let SHIELD plant a chip into us? Especially Loki who has some serious trust issues.“ 

Stark snorted "Trust issues is putting it lightly!" 

Phil took out his phone and walked away from their little group dialing a number. After a short phone call he came back. „I called headquarters to check the social services calls for any calls of found children!“

The group looked at him dumbfounded. „You know, normal people tend to call the police if they find a child wandering around.“ Phil explained slowly. 

 

Opening his eyes again, he found himself in the middle of a field. The closet was gone. The robot and its enforcer were gone. He was on his own. The field was empty of any plants. Looking around he found nothing familiar. Only fields. The sun was still up. Loki looked down on himself, taking in the far too big shirt he was wearing. He had no idea where it had come from. 

He was walking for a long time. His feet hurt, probably because he had no shoes on. Not a single house was in sight. Loki followed the path dividing the different fields in the hope of finding any sign of somebody else living there. 

After a while a car passed him. At first Loki thought that it wouldn´t stop but after a few meters it stopped. An elder woman got out of the old truck looking back at him. She walked up to him, slowly as if not to scare him.

„Hey sweety, are you alright?“ He nodded. The circus taught him not to talk to people from the outside. They caused more trouble than they needed. 

She looked relieved. „Where are your parents?“

Loki didn´t know what to answer. 

The woman smiled at him encouraging him to talk. „Do you want to get in my car? I can take you with me and we can phone them?“

Loki nodded. He didn´t know her but she didn´t look a maniac nor did she look as if she had an enforcer anywhere close. She opened the door for him, still smiling at him. He got into the car. She walked to the other side of the car, getting in herself. 

„Please put on the seat belt!“ 

He did as being told. 

The woman asked him a few questions, mostly yes or no questions, not getting angry at his refusal to answer. 

 

They drove to a police station. Loki wasn´t surprised by that. It was probably the most normal thing to do if you found a child wandering around. The station was small. Only four desk were in it. The woman spoke to a man explaining the situation to him. Loki stood beside her, watching them interact. The man turned his focus to him.

„Hello there, little man. I am Jim. Who are you?“ The woman had asked the same question. Both waited for him to speak. 

„You don´t want to tell us your name?“ The man asked again. „Don´t worry, little man, it isn´t bad that you don´t talk. Most people talk too much anyways!“ The man said smiling widely. Loki smiled back. 

 

They gave him some paper and some pens leading him to a desk. Loki watched them talking to each other, not hearing what they were saying. Judging by their expressions it wasn´t very good. Another man and a woman in uniform walked into the station. They brought a bag with them. Jim, as the man introduced himself before, walked up to him with the bag in his hand. 

„I have some clean clothes for you. Can you dress yourself?“ Loki nodded. „Alright then, I´ll take you to the bathroom and wait outside for you, alright?“ Another nod. 

In the bathroom, Loki took notice of how dirty he looked. He looked sweaty. His feet were full of dirt as well. He took a paper towel and began to clean himself a little. It didn´t do much. He still looked dirty. The bag had a few shirts and pants in it. Loki got out of the far to big shirt. He looked looked in the mirror, feeling as something was wrong. As if something was missing. 

Shaking his head he changed into a shirt and pants, trying to ignore what he had seen. It was just his imagination running wild. The clothes were a little too big and looked kind of baggy. There weren´t any shoes, only socks. Dressed he walked out of it again.

Jim was waiting for him, smiling softly at him.

„You look as good as new!“ Loki shrugged pointing to his feet. „We´ll get you shoes later. Are you hungry?“ Loki nodded.

Jim reached out with a hand towards him. Out of impulse he took a step back. The older man got a strange look on his face, before schooling his feature back to a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit longer than the last chapter. I chose meters because I more used to the metric system than the american system and I didn´t want to mix it up. 
> 
> The chapter is mostly from the point of view of Loki, judging by what I´ve written until now, I guess most of the story will be made up by his point of view. 
> 
> The next chapter will be up soon, probably by next monday! 
> 
> Again, I thank all of you for leaving kudos and commenting on my story. 
> 
> And again, I have no beta, so all mistakes are my own, please bear in mind I am no native speaker.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am terribly sorry for the late update!

Phil wasn´t really surprised that nobody of the Avengers thought of it before. Calling social services and the police would be the first thing any normal person would do, if they found a child wandering around. He didn´t tell Maria any details besides that they were looking for a child. She didn´t ask for any either. He knew that he had to fill out the paperwork one way or another. 

If Dr Banner was right, they might had a real problem on their hands. Neither SHIELD nor the World Security Council would want Loki to wander around in the world without supervision. In the wrong hands he could become a real danger to all of them. They had to find him. 

Back at the Stark Tower, or Avengers Tower as it was called now, the remaining Avengers were staring at the Youth Ray Stark and Dr Banner had taken with them. It didn´t look dangerous. 

Phil hoped that none of them were careless enough of playing with the damn thing. Another Avenger too young to understand what was going on would be the last thing they needed. Even if Stark felt otherwise, claiming that a child would help their situation immensely. Phil didn´t quite believe that. 

First of all who would be the lucky one to be a child again? Dr Banner was out of the question for obvious reasons. Natasha probably had a unconventional childhood, not that anybody knew any details about it. Stark would be more help staying a grown up. And Thor, he was pretty sure turning Thor into a child again would cause a political conflict with the Asguardians. 

The only option would be Clint, but he was also the only one knowing Loki´s powers best. He could differentiate between reality and Loki´s illusions. That would be useful once they found the child. 

 

He was worried about Clint. Loki was his family in all ways that mattered. Without him, there was something missing. But even so, they were separated more often than not since they had joined SHIELD. It was something different. This whole Youth Ray incident unraveled something different in Clint. Childhood was a chapter of Clint´s life they didn´t talk about. Phil knew the facts, the best ofs as Clint called them, but nothing more. Loki´s childhood was even more vague. 

Especially considering that they didn´t meet until they were at least ten, as far as Phil knew. This was a whole different situation now. They now had a child with the powers of adult Loki, not knowing what was going on or how to use them. This wasn´t going to end well. 

 

Stark and Dr Banner started to discuss the youth ray in a more scientific language causing the others to exchange confused glances. Phil was about to say something when his mobile rang. 

Turning away from the little group he listened as Maria told him about a call to child services regarding a child fitting Loki´s description. 

Loki dreamt of strange creatures attacking him and people chasing him. Somebody woke him. Jim looked down on him, concern written in his face. 

„Are you alright?“ Loki nodded. „Little man, there is somebody here for you!“

Loki looked past Jim towards the entrance of the station. A woman with red hair stood there. She looked familiar. Loki wasn´t sure if it was a good kind of familiar. 

Jim looked at him, still smiling. „Don´t worry, she will take good care of you!“

Loki nodded and got up. He followed the man to the woman. She smiled at him. „Hello, my name is Natasha!“

Loki eyed her suspiciously. Her smile didn´t change. Her name, on the other hand, did remind him of something important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It´s a bit short and I am not really happy with it. I really want to finish ths story but right now I believe it will take a while until I will update again. At the moment, I am a bit preoccupied with othe stuff, which needs to be taken care of, but I´ll finish the story soon, I hope.   
> Thanks for your comments and kudos!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wondered whether I need trigger warnings for this fic, I didn´t do it up to now, because I am not sure if I need them. So to be clear, this fic mentions violance and past child abuse. It´s not very graphic though.

No secret agency was really secret. It was simply not possible since they worked on the base that there was something to fight against, and since there was an enemy there was somebody who knew about them. Pretty plausible, right? Bearing that in mind, it was clear that each agency tried to infiltrate the other one, hoping to get great intel out of it. It was nothing more than occupational hazard that came with trying to save, or destroy, the world. 

Normally those moles weren´t seen as much of a threat. If found, they would be fed wrong information and if they were not found, well that was a whole different problem. 

SHIELD was well aware of this mole problem. Like I said before, occupational hazard. Those moles were mostly friendly, curious little creatures wanting to please their evil overlord of choice. At SHIELD they were under the impression that they were coping with their little mole problem rather great. 

Another occupational hazard a secret agency had to deal with was that nothing ever worked according to plan. Most of the time at least. Every fifth mission would end up not working out according to plan. Of course not counting the missions the Avengers went on, those had a higher number of fails, especially whenever Stark was involved. 

 

Keeping those two factors in mind, it shouldn´t come as surprise that the simple task of picking up a child ended in an explosion. 

 

They walked out of the station towards a car. A black SUV. Loki had a feeling that the woman wasn´t working for social services. He didn´t know a lot about them but he was sure that they didn´t drive cars like that. He stopped walking. Natasha, or the woman who called herself Natasha, looked back at him. Her stature was defensive as if she waited for him to attack or something similar to that. Her whole body looked on edge. She seemed to be afraid of him.

Loki tilted his head looking closer at her. He tried to find a reason why she would be. Something was terribly off about her. The closer he looked at her, the more he seemed to be able to read her. He had the feeling as if he could read her mind. Not sentences, only words were echoing in his mind. Fear. Uncertainty. Fake. Alert. Lies.

She wasn´t who she said she was, Loki was sure of that. The woman lied. He took a step away from her. Natasha, or whatever her real name was, stayed were she was. 

His instincts told him to get away. More often than not his instincts were right. She made a move towards him, to which he took another step back, bringing his hands up in defensive. 

Then something exploded and the woman laid on the ground, the car behind her was on his back and smoke was everywhere. 

Loki had no idea what was going on but it scared him. First the robot, then the field and now the explosion. Something was wrong. He just wanted to go back to the circus. He didn´t want to be anywhere else. Just home. Not here where he clearly didn´t belong. 

For a moment absolute silence reigned. Nothing moved or made a sound. The shock of the explosion seemed to have silenced every other noise. Loki took a deep breath, closing his eyes, trying to calm himself.

Then his head exploded with voices. He fell to his knees clutching his ears trying to make the noise stop. The voices screamed in his head. Terror, fear and angst was their common theme. 

„Loki!“ A calm voice called him through the other voices.

„I didn´t do anything wrong!“ Loki said more to himself than anyone else. The other voices didn´t stop screaming. „She reached for me. I didn´t do anything wrong!“ 

„I know!“ The voice said softly, cutting through the other voices.

„She lied. She wasn´t who she said she was. I could see it in her mind. I didn´t do anything wrong! She shouldn´t have tried to touch me!“ 

„Calm down, Loki! Everything is alright. Nobody is saying that it is your fault!“

Loki shook his head, eyes still closed. „Make them stop!“ He told the voice.

„You have to calm down, Loki!“ 

„I can´t! It´s too loud, make them stop, please!“ 

 

They arrived at the police station just in time to see a woman trying to grab Loki. Clint got a bad feeling in his guts. „Shit!“ he muttered under his breath. The child took a step back, but the agent didn´t think of backing away as well.

The moment she took another step towards her, a blue energy ball flew past her, brushing her on its way towards the car. They saw the woman fall to the ground and Loki standing there looking shocked. People streamed out of the stores towards the parking lot, looking terrified at the smoking car. 

 

Loki just stood there for a moment before he fell onto his knees, clutching his head between his hands. Clint moved first. He ran towards the parking lot, getting slower the closer he got to Loki.   
The others were following him but stopped a few feet away. They watched as Clint walked closer to the child. 

Clint spoke softly, not to scare Loki any more than necessary. It was clear to see that he was in distress. Clint tried to calm him down but it became clear that his words didn´t have the desired effect. 

He had to do something or Loki would vanish again. Chances were they wouldn´t find him that quickly a second time. He didn´t have a choice. He reached into his jacket, taking out the syringe Bruce had given him for the worst case scenario. It was only a mild sedative, but effective. In a quick movement Clint grabbed the boy. 

„I am sorry!“ He told him before injecting the sedative into his body. Loki opened his eyes in shock locking eyes with Clint. For a moment Clint thought that Loki had recognized him. Then his eyes closed again, his body limp in Clint´s arms.

 

Loki woke up in a white room. He was on his own. Slowly he got up from the bed and walked towards the door. He tried to open it, but soon discovered that it was locked. Looking around in the room he noticed that one of the walls was made out of glass. It looked a lot like the terrarium the circus kept its snakes in.

Loki walked closer to it, touching the glass. He couldn´t see anything on the other side of the glass. Everything was dark. The only thing he could see clearly was the reflection of himself in the glass. He wore something resembling the scrubs worn by patients in a hospital, only in white instead of blue.

Then he noticed some movement and people appeared out of nowhere looking at him. They pointed at him and started to laugh. Loki took a step back. More and more people came. All of them watched him, pointing and laughing at him.

Loki saw the disgust in their faces. They looked at him with pure hatred. He tried to hide somewhere but the room was empty. The bed he woke up in had vanished as well. It was just him in the white room.

Suddenly he could hear them as well. He could hear them calling him a freak and worse. They began hitting the glass. The noise of their hands banging the window grew louder and louder. Scared Loki pressed himself against the door behind him. In panic he tried to open it again, to escape the room. But it didn´t open. 

He could hear the glass crack under the pressure. He was sure that soon all those people would get in. He closed his eyes and began to scream. 

 

Clint sat in the infirmary in the Stark Tower. He looked at Loki who was plugged to various machines to monitor his vitals. Bruce insisted on it. They weren´t sure how great the influence of the Youth Ray was on Loki. His vitals were stable. 

Clint would guess that Loki was about seven, maybe eight. He had forgotten how fragile Loki had been as a child. Looking at him now it was a wonder he even survived the circus. They both had gotten lucky. 

Bruce had been right. Loki was in possession of all of his powers. It would be a lot to deal with when Loki woke up. They had to explain what was going on without scaring him away. The mind reading would be a real problem. He remembered that Loki needed some time to keep unwanted thoughts out. It wasn´t a real problem back then. They just stayed away from other people until Loki was sure he could block them out. But back then they had been older and Loki was already in control of some of his power. Clint wasn´t sure what seven year old Loki had been able to do with his power.

Besides now they had to stay in the tower, where people were everywhere. It would be much harder on Loki to focus on blending them all out of his mind. Clint let out a deep sigh, wondering how he would be able to explain all of this to a child. A child that most likely would be terrified. 

Suddenly the vitals began playing crazy. Loki began moving. Something was wrong. 

„JARVIS call Bruce, something is wrong with Loki!“ Clint ordered the AI. „Everything is alright!“ He told the boy, trying to calm him down. It didn´t work. Loki´s movement began to resemble something like a fit. Clint had no idea what to do. And then the screaming started.

Instead of Bruce another person entered the room. It was one of the new doctors working for Stark. He took a look at the screaming Loki before injecting him with another syringe. 

„What the fuck are you doing?“ Clint exclaimed angrily. 

„If he wakes up and is confused about where he is, he could be a danger to all of us!“ The man replied coldly.

„So you decide to give him tranquilizer to keep him calm like a fucking animal? He´s a kid!“ 

The man glared at him. „He is not a kid, but something way more dangerous that needs to be controlled!“ 

„Get out!“ Clint said deadly calm. The doctor rolled his eyes and left the room.

A moment later Bruce walked in, looking concerned at Clint who was pulling the wires of the machines off of Loki.

„What are you doing?“ 

„Something I should have done from the beginning!“ Clint lifted Loki out of the bed. 

„You can´t just take him away from here!“ 

„Why not? At least I don´t keep injecting him with god knows what!“

Bruce looked dumbfounded. „What?“ 

„Ask JARVIS!“ With that Clint walked passed Bruce. 

 

Tony was the next to try to stop him. „C´mon Katniss, the guy was an idiot! I don´t even know who let him in here! I already told Pepper to fire him!“

Clint shook his head at him. „It´s not just him!“ 

Tony began walking beside him. „Is it about what he said?“ He looked at Clint reading his expression. „Don´t take it serious, they are idiots! They don´t know our little alien like we do!“

Clint stopped walking and turned to Stark. „Are you honestly telling me you aren´t afraid of him?“

 

Tony didn´t answer.

Clint shook his head, ready to walk away. Tony grabbed his arm holding him back. „It would be foolish not to be afraid of him! He is scared and doesn´t know what he is capable of. I don´t say that he is going to hurt us on purpose but what if he looses control over his powers? Somebody could get hurt and he wouldn´t forgive himself when he is back to normal, especially if that somebody is you! I am not saying that I am all for keeping him sedated, I am just saying that it is healthy to be afraid of him right now! He doesn´t know who we are, who you are, and he is scared shitless probably. He is a child after all!“ Clint looked at him, not knowing what to say. „Look, you can bring him to your quarters in the tower. Keep him there instead of the infirmary but it is in his best interest to keep him in the tower. Bruce and I will have a solution for the problem in a matter of days!“ 

Clint nodded in defeat, realising that he truely had nowhere else to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for the late updates, but like I said before I really try to update more regularly!   
> This chapter is a lot longer than the last one.   
> It´s a bit different to the other chapters, since I wanted to show the same scene from different perspectives, I hope it worked out well. The scene in the room was a hint to the scene in Thor 2, where Loki was behind the glass as well to Everything as it seems!   
> Again, it´s a bit of a cliff hanger with lots of feelings! 
> 
> I appreciate all of your comments and kudos, which really keep me going! It´s great to see that people actually enjoy this fic, or are at least curious enough to keep reading! Thank you so much!


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